Day 16

Waking up this morning was a bit of a surprise because of how exhausted I was last night. I was finally able to observe what was around me, plus it was light out so I could see where we actually were. All the girls had rooms on the third floor of the ruka, the boys on the second and the main floor is where we take our meals. There is a sky-light in the middle of the ceiling and everything is rounded around that, so that from the top floor you can see in to the dining area as well as parts of the second floor. Again I am in a room with Emily, and Kelly but this time we have 2 bunk beds. I am on the bottom bunk of one with no one on top; Kelly is on the bottom of the other with Emily above her. There is one bathroom per two rooms and we are sharing a bathroom with the other Emily. I took a shower this morning which was nice because I really wanted to feel clean after driving in the bus all the previous day. For breakfast we sat at the same long table set for 21 and we had a variety of yogurts to choose from, as well as juice, bread, cheese and ham. There was also instant coffee, and I have to be honest it is not tasting as bad as at the beginning of the trip. As we all filed out to get on the bus we found that Juan could not get the engine to start running so part of the group had to push the bus to turn it around and then again down the hill. Luckily it did start and we were soon on our way. Our first activity of the morning was stopping at a nearby farm where there is a project on Mapuche medicine started by the Catholic University of Chile. We were given a tour of the farm and told about how different herbs are used as medicine in the Mapuche culture. From there we headed to the Villarrica branch of the University and had a tour of the small room that had several cases of Mapuche artifacts. This was a very short stop and we had some time before lunch, so we walked down to the lake to take a look at the volcano and the lake. It was interesting to walk down there because there had been a lot of rain in the area before we arrived and so parts of the streets and park were flooded. After taking some great pictures and skipping rocks in the water we headed back towards the university where we were going to get lunch at a close by cafeteria restaurant. They were expecting us and had a huge table set up just like at the ruka. This was a delicious lunch of salad, empanadas, a quiche-like dish and lemon mousse for dessert. After lunch we piled back on to the bus and headed to a local primary health care center. We were given a tour by Natalia (one of our local contacts) but the center was very busy so we were not able to get a thorough tour. We also went to another community family healthcare center where Natalia works and were given an overview of the process that her patients go through. There were some plans to go shopping afterwards, but every one was pretty ready to head back so we did not stay too long. When we got back to the ruka Jaime, Cameron, Brandon, Kelly, Emily and I went out in the front lawn area where there are all kinds of play-ground apparatuses like a seesaw, swings, monkey bars and other things. Our fun was soon ended because dinner was being served, which consisted of a soup to start and then another quiche-like dish and fruit for dessert. Everything has been really good here so far, probably my favorite meals on the trip in fact. After dinner we had a little bit of down time before we decided to get together and have a little bit of fun for the rest of the evening. This part of the trip has definitely been a good bonding time for the entire group.